The US bomb is ready: soon also in the EU

by Manlio Dinucci*

(15 March 2021) The United States has developed a new type of nuclear bomb, much smaller and more manageable. It will mass-produce and store them in the European Union, to "guarantee its security".

A video released on 23 November by Sandia National Laboratories shows a US F-35A fighter jet flying at supersonic speed at an altitude of 3,000 metres and launching a B61-12 nuclear bomb (equipped for non-nuclear warhead testing). The bomb does not fall vertically but hovers, until rockets in the Tail Kit Assembly (TKA) are ignited and the B61-12 (guided by a satellite system) is directed at the target, which it hits 42 seconds after launch.

The test was carried out on 25 August at the Tonopah-Polygon range in the Nevada desert. An official statement confirms it’s a full success: it is a rehearsal of a real nuclear attack that the fighter carries out at supersonic speed and with stealth – with the nuclear bombs placed in the inner bay – to penetrate enemy defences.

The B61-12 has a nuclear warhead with four power options selectable at launch depending on the target to be hit. It has the ability to penetrate underground, detonating deep down to destroy command centre bunkers and other underground structures.

The Pentagon's programme calls for the construction of about 500 B61-12s, at an estimated cost of about $10 billion (making each bomb twice as expensive as if it were built entirely of gold). It has been officially announced that mass production of the new nuclear bomb will begin in fiscal year 2022, which starts on 1 October 2021.

It is not known how many B61-12s will be stockpiled by the US in Italy, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands to replace the B61s, the actual number of which is secret. Satellite photos show that restructuring work has been carried out at the Aviano and Ghedi bases in preparation for the arrival of the new nuclear bombs, with which the US Air Force's F-35A and, under US command, the Italian Air Force will be armed.

The situation in which Italy will find itself – when the nuclear-ready F-35A and B61-12 are stockpiled on its territory – is easily predictable. As a forward base for the US nuclear deployment in Europe, directed primarily against Russia, Italy will be in an even more dangerous situation. It will depend even more than before on strategic decisions taken in Washington, which involve political and economic choices detrimental to our sovereignty and real national interests. It will have to increase military spending from the current 26 billion euros to 36 billion euros per year, to which will be added, according to the plans, more than 60 billion allocated for military purposes by the Ministry of Economic Development and taken (plus interest) from the European Recovery Fund.

Italy will violate even more than before the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which it acceded in 1975 by committing itself "not to accept from anyone, directly or indirectly, the transfer of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or control over such weapons or explosive devices". It will further refute the recent UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which states: "[...] each State Party which has a nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive device on its territory or in any place under its jurisdiction or control that is owned or possessed by another State shall ensure the prompt removal of such weapons".

In order to get things moving in a parliament that is silent on all this, MP Sara Cunial (Gruppo Misto) put a question for written reply to the Presidency of the Council and to the Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs. After stating the above-mentioned facts, she asked "whether the Government intends to respect the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, ratified by Italy in 1975; whether it intends to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which comes into effect in 2021; whether it intends to ensure that, on the basis of what is stipulated in these treaties, the United States immediately withdraws all nuclear weapons from Italian territory and refrains from installing the new B61-12 bombs and other forms of nuclear weapons there".

While we are waiting for the government's response in writing, the United States is conducting the final tests of the bomb, which will soon be placed under our feet.

Source: Voltairnet.org/Il Manifesto (Italy), 1/12/2020

(Translation «Swiss Standpoint»)

* Manlio Dinucci is a geographer, political scientist, journalist and book author. His latest books are: Laboratorio di geografia, Zanichelli 2014; Diario di viaggio (three volumes), Zanichelli 2017; L’arte della guerra / Annali della strategia Usa/Nato 1990–2016, Zambon 2016; Guerra nucleare. Il giorno prima. Da Hiroshima a oggi: chi e come ci porta alla catastrofe, Zambon 2017; Diario di guerra. Escalation verso la catastrofe (2016–2018), Asterios Editores 2018.